Amity & Sorrow (Riley) - Book Reviews

Book Reviews
Peggy Riley...has an engaging way of raising mysteries, then deferring their answers. How exactly does a man talk a wife into sharing him? Who set the temple fire just before the escape? Why is Amaranth grateful for Sorrow’s miscarriage?... One of the conceits and pleasures of an escape-to-society story—cutting across genres from memoir to novels like Emma Donoghue’s Room—lies in lifting the escapee’s blindfold and watching her relish the dailiness of life...like a foreigner to Earth.... A shimmering first novel...delicately stitched, finely patterned and poetic.
Dylan Landis - New York Times Book Review


A literary page-turner.... Her writing is clear, crisp, chilling.
Reader's Digest


(Starred review.) [A] harsh but compassionate look at nature vs. nurture through the lens of a polygamous cult. Sisters Amity and Sorrow were born and raised by their mother, Amaranth, the first of the 50 wives of a self-proclaimed prophet, the leader...of a doomsday sect. When a confrontation with the law results in gunshots and a fire, Amaranth grabs her teenage daughters, steals a car, and drives for four days....explor[ing] this new world, meeting people and making...choices for the first time.... Riley’s mastery keeps this unusual tale from descending into melodrama, and she makes no easy choices....  A fierce and disturbing novel.
Publishers Weekly


(Starred review.) [An] accomplished, harrowing debut.... Riley's descriptive prose is rich in metaphor.... [and] the haunting literary drama simmers to a boil as it deftly navigates issues of family, faith, community, and redemption. —Ann Kelley
Booklist


The eponymous title refers to the daughters of Amaranth, the first wife (out of 50) of Zachariah, Messianic leader of a Doomsday cult. The novel opens with Amaranth on the lam with her two daughters, trying desperately to put some distance between herself and Zachariah.... Amaranth has recently become so spooked by Zachariah's growing megalomania that she feels she no longer has a home.... Through flashbacks we get glimpses into the lives Amaranth, Sorrow and Amity have led with Zachariah, shielded from the world and subject to his apocalyptic paranoia.... Simple in style but complex in tone, this book raises troubling questions about the power of doomladen cults, and their leaders and followers.
Kirkus Reviews